heat wave

The weather has been record breaking heat wave for several days. No rain. The plants are wilted every day, even if we watered them. The heat index this weekend was 119. It’s been the hottest ever recorded.

You were incredibly hungry. There are times you aren’t real interested in eating and other times you are so hungry for food you get fussy. Last night you must have been hungry because when I laid you down to sleep and nursed you, you chugged your milk, which is a very unusual feeling. I could hear you gulping fast and feel the milk coming out at a fast pace. I tried not to laugh

I wish you could just poop. I hate seeing you constipated.

You are so much more active at night now. Before you settle down to sleep, you have to squirm, flop over, get on your hands & knees and otherwise flail about like a fish out of water. Sometimes you settle down in a few minutes, sometimes it take a long time and I get frustrated because I don’t have enough milk for you to latch on and off all night. Your papa sometimes has to take over and put you to sleep. You fall asleep for him so well, and he brags about it everytime.

You are scared of the vacuum cleaner now so we have to hold you while doing it.

milk in mah sippy cup

Mama got you a sippy cup with a straw. It just makes more sense. You weren’t handling the training cup very well because you have to tip it towards your face. You took to drinking with a straw very fast and can do it very well now. Papa has even given you Breastmilk in it and he said you sucked it right down.

Papa plays a new game with you in bed. He hides behind a pile of blanket and asks, “where’s Waylon?” and you crane your neck and stretch up to see him. When he pushes the blanket down and says, “there he is!” you smile and giggle. It’s so cute.

You seriously love Elmo. I always point him out in your books and on videos and you smile. Papa found a video of Elmo singing about ducks and everytime you hear a quack you laugh.

Your army crawl is much more efficient. You get up on your hands and knees and kind of sway back and forth and can manage a step or two before you fall flat on your belly and go back to army crawling. Sometimes you get pissed off when you want to really take off and you get stuck.

Lately you’ve been getting fussy right before bedtime. I don’t know why. You absolutely hate having your clothes changed. It’s been so hot lately I just put you in a diaper at night now. During the day you just wear pants because your knees are getting red from all the crawling. You really dislike diaper changes and will NOT sit still long enough for me to put one on you. Then you get pissed when I keep flipping you back over so I can get the damn thing on. 

I can see the faint white of your teeth under the surface of your gums but nothing has erupted yet. I got you baby Oragel natural teething tablets and you eat them like candy. Can’t tell if they help but they are homeopathic so why the hell not. I also got you an amber teething bracelet that wouldn’t fit around your chubby ankle so I put it on your wrist. I can’t really tell if that helps either. 

You love kitty, kitty loves you. He likes to snuggle up against you. You don’t like his fur tickling your face. You really really don’t like it when Bibi licks your face, which happens anytime your face is within reach of her tongue.

Mommy had ordered some bed rails online to put on the bed but mommy and daddy had a huge fight and he ended up taking the bed down and putting it on the floor (finally, after talking about doing this for weeks). It worked out great because now we have a mattress on the floor in the bedroom and the foam topper in the office for you to play on.

mommy's birthday

@ your 6 month checkup

We were kind of worried about how you would handle your 6 month shots because last time you suffered. I truly believe it was because the vaccine didn’t fully spread and some of it oozed out of the injection site. This time mommy made sure she rubbed the spot really good. You screamed for a minute, but then calmed down and even smiled at the nurse as we were leaving. I hate to see you in such distress but you are such a good boy, you calmed down pretty fast. We gave you a little bit of Tylenol right before the shot too. 

The doctor said you were a very healthy boy. In the 95^th % for height and 50^th % for weight. You have had no illnesses or anything other than constipation, which the doc told us to give you Karo syrup for. I don’t like the idea of giving you high fructose corn syrup but I did some research and gave it a try and it seemed to help. I just don’t want to give it to you all the time. You need to adjust to pooping on your own. Mommy got super organized and finally put your info together in a binder so we can easily keep track of all your shots and health information. I was kind of worried about your left eye seeming to cross inwards but the doc said that was normal part of developing eyes and it would only be a concern if they were going outwards, not inwards. Since then, I’ve noticed that your eye isn’t crossing noticeably anymore.

mini-me

You look so much like me. Everyone says you take after me and I agree although there are many things you take after your dad too. But mostly it’s me. But there are things you do that are from me, too. Mannerisms that you couldn’t have possibly learned by watching, it must be genetic. You yawn exactly like I do, opening your mouth in a O shape, scrunching your nose, and then the exhale sigh. It’s exactly like mine. The way you look around scrutinizing is also from me. The “worried” look is also mine, even if you aren’t worried. Your chuckle – huh huh huh huh is also mine. You also still do some things you did inside my belly, like the finger scratching which you do when you are nursing to sleep.  

crawl baby crawl

So close to crawling. You can lift your butt up in the air better, and your army crawl is stronger. You like to crawl towards the pack n play, and get yourself stuck in the corner staring at the wheel. You’ve been pretty constipated since starting on solids so we are trying to help you with that by prunes, prune juice and backing off the bananas. I’m so sorry we made you constipated cause I can tell its tough on you. I also got you some teething tabs which seemed to help with the teething. I might make you some herbal chamomile tea too. Yesterday was father’s day. We didn’t really do anything cause he wasn’t feeling good (he drank a lot of whiskey the night before). I got him a fishing pole, some shorts and t-shirt. I took you to the grocery store, you like to look around from the sling then you pass out and I finish shopping. When you wake up you get squirmy and then it gets frustrating to shop. I’ve been bathing you in your inflatable duck bathtub and you seem to enjoy it. I worry about you going underwater so much.

I love waking up with you in the morning. Your sweet little face is so cute, your eyes open wide and you smile so happily to see me. When I put you down for naps when you are cranky and tired, you are so eager to nurse to sleep you get a bit frantic. Sometime you laugh, sometime you whimper. You just can’t wait for me to whip out the boobie so you can suck and pass out. One time you actually gigglesnorted as you latched on, making me laugh. When you are really tired, you pass out almost instantly. Sometimes you are restless and you kick your legs and scoot your body upwards and I have to drag you back down by your leg. I think we are giving up all hope of transitioning to your crib. You still really enjoy bouncing like crazy in your jumper. Papa wants to get you a walker but I think it’ll be a waste because our place is so small and most of it is carpet. There’s really nowhere for you to walk to. I’ve been saying Hi to you a lot and one time it seemed like you were trying to say Hi back to me. You are very interested in books.

zits, boo-boos, & no poop

A lot over the weekend. Kim came to visit. You smacked your face into tub on Friday night and got a small cut and black eye. Momma gave you your first haircut on Sunday. Saturday we noticed 2 front teeth and the gums around your bottom canines looked red and sore. You had a small zit on your forehead. You are pooping better now since you’ve gotten more milk and less oatmeal/bananas/sweet potatoes. Momma gave you kiwi, prunes, garden veggies and mashed cauliflower with turmeric (and a smidge of butter). You liked prunes & cauliflower, but I hope it doesn’t give you gas, we’ll find out today I guess. You are so much more aware now; you look around for us when you wake. You try to wake papa up in the morning, turning over to him and smacking him. You were a bit fussy Sunday and you slept a lot, napping every 2-3 hours. I love you more and more every day, you are so cute. You laugh and giggle all the time, even when you are sleeping. You always crack a smile whenever you hear “papa’s gonna get your annuities!” You love bath time, watching the dog and playing with the cat. You don’t mind the cat biting you softly. You smell so sweet, like lightly sour milk. I love to kiss you. You like to play choo-choo when I lay you on your back and peddle your legs. You think sneezing is funny. You love to go outside, yesterday you were mesmerized by the heavy rain out on the back patio. You actually stop and smell the herbs momma puts under your nose now. It’s so cute to see your eyes focus on nothing while you use your nose to smell.  

routines & stuff

You are growing by leaps and bounds. You can almost crawl now. You have been army crawling for a couple weeks, just dragging yourself a few inches at a time. Now you are lifting up with your arms and lifting your butt up in the air. All you need is a little more coordination and you will be mobile. I think within the next 2 weeks you will be crawling. No teeth yet, and some days you drool a lot, some days you don’t. No diaper rashes yet. No colds or other sicknesses. You nurse to sleep still but when you are done nursing; you flop back and conk out. You like to have your little legs elevated and spread out. Sometimes you like sleeping all cuddled up in the blanket, something you want to be spread eagle with nothing covering you. Yesterday I gave you half of a kiwi and you loved it, you are trying to chew but you don’t have teeth so you end up gagging on the chunk of food you can tear off with your gums. For the most part, we give you purees but lately momma’s been slacking on making them for you so I have some store bought baby food for you too. Next week we will go to the WIC office and get checks for baby food. 

You absolutely LOVE bathtime now. You talk to the water when it comes out of the faucet. You like to take your hands and put them in the stream of water. You grab your toys that float (especially the cloth crab, your favorite) and chew on them. I sit Indian style with you in my lap while you reach out. Sometimes I lean you back and your lower half floats in the water a bit and you kick your legs. Usually right before bathtime I take you for a walk around the neighborhood, then right after your bath you go to bed, usually sometime between 7-8 pm. You get cranky after bath time, I don’t know if it’s because you don’t wanna go to bed or you just hate being lotioned and dressed. Well, I know you hate being dressed. Oh you can really put up a fight now. You will shake your head violently and kick your legs. It’s cute. Sometimes you will wake up and wail a couple times at night if I’m not in bed with you. Sometimes you will wake up and scream bloody murder. I’m hoping you will take to sleeping in your crib but I doubt it.

I took you to church this past Sunday and put you in the nursery. I was nervous and having separation anxiety. You cried so hard, when I came back a few minutes later you were crying and whimpering and it broke my heart. I had to nurse and soothe you for a while before you would calm down. You were so upset. I whispered in your ear that papa was going to get your annuities and you smiled. We left church early, there was no way I was going to put you through that again.